Meet Essence Martins – the YouTube-taught guitarist who’s choosing to master the instrument on her own terms
A few years ago Essence Martins was performing alongside award-winning artist and Skinny Love singer Birdy as a touring guitarist, now she’s collecting admirers for her own work, with the likes of Little Simz, Rachel Chinouriri and Mika all vying for a piece of the action.
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She may have only picked up the instrument six years ago, but Martins has become synonymous with a humble but reliable sticker-covered Vintage acoustic (though she’s also starting to turn to a Fender Acoustasonic Stratocaster live). The Vintage is affectionately called Woody, and is the vehicle for a light fingerpicking style that accompanies her tales of complicated relationships, figuring out early adulthood and finding self-acceptance.
The 24-year-old singer-songwriter from North-West London sits down with Guitar.com to discuss her development as a guitarist, the guitarists that keep her inspired and the motivations behind her latest EP Sleeping On It.
Image: Press
The power of the internet
“I didn’t know what I was doing at first”, the young guitarist admits. “I was in a dark place when I was 18, so I found playing music as a bit of escapism… it became such a comfort.”
YouTube has become an incredibly powerful tool for guitar tuition over the past decade or so, but rather than spending her time plugging away on theory and technique, she was learning songs and piecing together chord theory as a result. It was a rite of passage, it seems.
“It allowed me to really understand those basic pop chord shapes that you hear in most of the top 40 tracks,” she says, “you can play so much with just the four chords, but I quickly got bored of that. It wasn’t helping my songwriting, so I started messing around with tunings and that’s what started opening doors for me.”
She explains that many of the songwriters that she was looking to at the time, such as Lizzy McAlpine and Madison Cunningham, were leaning into more complex open tunings, offering plenty of inspiration and guidance while she was figuring out how she wanted to make the guitar her own.
“The most basic chord shapes can produce the most beautiful and interesting sounds using open tunings,” she explains, “and now, the more I play, the more ways I find of expanding my understanding of the fretboard. Whether that’s using more major and minor 7th chords or diminished chords and just using the people around me and YouTube too to enhance my skills.”
“I do find it weird to call myself a guitarist because I can’t do all of these crazy solos,” she adds. “But at the end of the day, I am, because it’s such an integral part of me as a writer and a performer – and I’m learning to master the instrument in a way that’s natural for me.”
Image: Press
Acoustic vs Electric
Her latest EP Sleeping On It, showcases Martins’ most authentic playing style to date, she explains. She demonstrates intricate picked melodies, the decision to not be so “perfect” with every single take, allowing the imperfections to be, and experimentations with the electric guitar, an instrument she feels is still rather unexplored for her.
“The acoustic guitar feels like home, it feels like me,” Martins admits. “The sonic world of my songs really suits acoustic, but I want to branch out and be able to play both acoustic and electric. Even in Quiet and Perfect, I used a Donner semi-hollowed body, so it is electric but has more of that rich sound. I wanted to try something different and it really works.”
Whether she feels comfortable being on stage without a guitar at all is a different question.
“When I’m performing by myself there is more pressure, so I do feel a lot of comfort when I’m playing with my guitar,” she explains. “There was one performance where I didn’t have an instrument for a song, and I just felt so naked! I didn’t know how to stand or what to do with my hands.”
“My acoustic is my little comfort zone, so I feel less alone playing with an instrument.”
Imposter syndrome
Despite sharing the stage with household names like Ellie Goulding and receiving nods from the likes of Jack Saunders at BBC Radio 1, Martins admits that she still deals with a fair amount of imposter syndrome, especially when it comes to being a guitarist.
“I never felt comfortable describing myself as one, which is so stupid because that’s literally what I do and what I am,” she exclaims. “I feel like a lot of women in music have this fear that they can’t label themselves as that just because they play the guitar, but if you can play the guitar, you are a guitarist!”
When asked what would have to change for that switch to flip in her mind, she says it comes down to being more confident in the craft.
“I just want to develop my skills and improve my understanding of theory more,” she explains. “It’s something I love, and being able to emulate notes more and being more experimental with sounds is what will empower me in my own abilities.”
“I’m always trying to find myself and be the most authentic version of myself, and when I’m not I do feel like letting others and myself down. As long as you’re being true to yourself and feeling confident in your abilities, that’s all you can do.”
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Source: www.guitar-bass.net
